Your Right to Know

By Jonathan Weisman &Jennifer SteinhauerTHE NEW YORK TIMES • Sunday November 11, 2012 10:32 AM

WASHINGTON — On a conference call with House Republicans a day after the party’s electoral
battering last week, Speaker John Boehner dished out some bitter medicine, and for the first time
in the 112th Congress, most members took their dose.

Their party lost, badly, the West Chester Republican said, and while Republicans would still
control the House and would continue to staunchly oppose tax-rate increases as Congress grapples
with the impending fiscal battle, they had to avoid the nasty showdowns that marked so much of the
last two years.

Members on the call, subdued and dark, murmured words of support — even a few who had been a
thorn in the speaker’s side for much of this Congress.

It was a striking contrast to a similar call last year, when Boehner tried to persuade members
to compromise with Democrats on a deal to extend a temporary cut in payroll taxes, only to have
them loudly revolt.

With President Barack Obama re-elected and Democrats cementing control of the Senate, Boehner
will need to capitalize on the chastened faction of the House GOP that wants to cut a deal to avert
sudden tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts in January that might send the economy back
into recession. After spending two years marooned between the will of his loud and fractious
members and the Democratic Senate majority, the speaker is trying to assert control, and many
members seem to be offering support.

“To have a voice at the bargaining table, John Boehner has to be strong,” said Rep. Tom Cole of
Oklahoma, one of the speaker’s lieutenants. “Most members were just taught a lesson that you’re not
going to get everything that you want. It was that kind of election.”

Aides say this is an altered political landscape that Boehner did not expect. As a result,
whether the country can avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” will depend not only on whether Boehner
can find common cause with a newly re-elected, invigorated president, but also on whether he can
deliver his own caucus.

“I just believe John will have more leeway than in the past Congress,” said Rep. Peter King,
R-N.Y. “The election will matter.”

The divide between Obama and Boehner appears wide. In their Saturday addresses, the president
demanded immediate House passage of a bill approved by the Senate that would extend the expiring
Bush-era tax cuts for households earning under $250,000, while the speaker said raising tax rates
on anyone would be unacceptable.

But beneath the posturing, both men were keeping open avenues of negotiation. Obama was careful
to call for more revenue, not higher tax rates, a demand that could be fulfilled by ending or
limiting tax deductions and credits, a path Boehner has accepted.

The question over what to do about the expiring tax cuts would be swept aside if the parties
could reach an agreement before then to overhaul the tax code completely — and render obsolete the
current structure of six income tax rates, all of which would rise on Jan. 1. Even so, some
Republicans have issued a stern warning to Boehner that he cannot expect their votes if he makes a
deal with Democrats before seeking their consent.

“What we’ve seen in the past is, the speaker goes, negotiates with the president, and just
before we vote, he tells us what the deal is and attempts to persuade us to vote for it,” said Rep.
John Fleming, R-La.

Given those demands, Boehner must decide whether he wants to seal his role as an essential
player in a grand plan to restructure the nation’s fiscal condition, or continue the status quo of
the gridlock voters appear to detest.

Boehner aides say the situation is not as dire as the conflicts of the past two years, which
nearly led to a government default on its debt and included a series of impasses that plunged
Congress’ approval rating to its lowest recorded level. Any deal with the president would probably
lose 60 to 80 Republican votes, but the president would bring along enough Democrats to get it
passed.

“When the president and I have been able to come to an agreement, there has been no problem
getting it passed here in the House,” Boehner assured reporters, alluding to the deal struck with
Obama to extend payroll tax cuts.

On Wednesday’s conference call, their ranks slightly reduced by the election, House Republican
leaders presented a united front, a departure from the backbiting of past showdowns, the leaders’
aides admit. After acknowledging that the election had not gone the way any of them had hoped,
Boehner made an ardent plea for unity, saying they could expect a good deal out of the coming
negotiations only if they stuck together.

The handful of Republican backbenchers who spoke up agreed, and those included often-rebellious
conservatives such as Reps. Phil Gingrey of Georgia and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina.

Before Boehner went in front of the cameras that afternoon with a carefully worded statement on
the fiscal talks, aides say he checked in with another figure he will need on his side, Rep. Paul
Ryan of Wisconsin, the defeated vice-presidential nominee and the House Budget Committee chairman.
He told Ryan what he was about to say and assured him he would be welcomed back as chairman, even
though he needs a waiver to escape rules limiting chairmen’s terms.